CALL ME MAGGIE

Religion and Spirituality

  • Keeping Vigil

    I call the time between first and second sleep the Night Vigil, following the old monastic traditions. For me, Night Vigil begins with an examination of conscience: Oh thou Encompassing, thou All, thou One. How can I give myself over… Continue reading

    Keeping Vigil

  • Flowing Exploration

    Metaphysics as a way of thinking suffers from confusion with superstition. As I have noted before, superstition encompasses more than the narrow notion thrown around by the “educated” where a person has irrational beliefs about a relationship between an imagined… Continue reading

    Flowing Exploration

  • The Logic of Stupid Poor People | tressiemc

    Great article on an issue that is close to my heart as a person who was born poor and has done many ridiculous things as well as savvy things to get out of perception of poverty. I know that being… Continue reading

    The Logic of Stupid Poor People | tressiemc

  • Thanksgiving Message 2013

    Today, we give thanks. Let our thinking then not turn to things. How can we turn this gift–our being able to think–toward a mere list of the things that we have or that we still want to obtain? Rather, turn… Continue reading

    Thanksgiving Message 2013

  • Art and Inner Spaces

    “Oh my God, does art engender humanity? It awakens your humanity. But humanity has nothing to do with political theory. Political theory is in the interests of one group of humanity, or one ideal for humanity. But humanity—my heavens, that’s… Continue reading

    Art and Inner Spaces

  • Saint Stephen The Ironist « The Dish

    Some good points from Sullivan on Colbert as an example of what happens when one is capable of intelligence and irony while being a person of faith. If I were to sum up the various forms of popular culture that… Continue reading

    Saint Stephen The Ironist « The Dish

  • Drawing – Seeing vs. Knowing | Zen School for Creative People

    When we draw, there is often a conflict between what we see and what we know.  The top sketch shows the head tilted back so far it cannot be seen.  The body is “foreshortened” with the legs appearing longer and… Continue reading

    Drawing – Seeing vs. Knowing | Zen School for Creative People

  • Buddhist Response To Terror

    Posted by KWB wandering among the borderlands of the Ether. Related articles Daodejing 38 Redux (keithwaynebrown.com) Becoming a Buddhist (prixiescrib.wordpress.com) The Face of Buddhist Terror (freedomnewsgroup.com) Wirathu: The Face Of Buddhist Terror – OpEd (eurasiareview.com) Continue reading

    Buddhist Response To Terror

  • The Arts United, Issue 3: Metaphysical Expressions

    My good brother in the spirit, Will Bermudez, is Creative Director for The Arts United Journal. (He is also a bad ass photag–one of my favorites, actually). The whole Arts United team–Daniela Riojas (Director), Viktoria Valencuela  (Chief Editor), Jose Mojica (Production… Continue reading

    The Arts United, Issue 3: Metaphysical Expressions

  • St. Symeon

    Symeon the New Theologian (Greek: Συμεὼν ὁ Νέος Θεολόγος; 949–1022 AD) was a Byzantine Christian monk and poet who was the last of three saints canonized by the Eastern Orthodox church and given the title of “Theologian” (along withJohn the Apostle and Gregory of Nazianzus). “Theologian” was not applied to… Continue reading

    St. Symeon

  • Daodejing 44

    #44* Fame or life: Which is dearer? Life or fortune: Which is most valuable? Gain or loss: Which is more harmful?  Hence, excessive love Is bound to great cost. Too many possessions Is bound to great loss. Knowing satisfaction, [1] Avoid… Continue reading

    Daodejing 44

  • Daodejing 40

    #40* The motion of DAO: returning. The usage of DAO: weakening. 10,000 things grow by having. [1] Having generates from not-having . [2] *Translation by LU Wenlong & Keith Wayne Brown, ©2013. [1] Having –> 有 [Yǒu]: to have, to exist. We might put here… Continue reading

    Daodejing 40

  • Gospel of Thomas – Yale Online

    Part of being a self directed learner who seeks out what interests you and hopefully makes you a better person, is finding bits and pieces of solid thinking on line. And so much sift through! There are a gajillion bits… Continue reading

    Gospel of Thomas – Yale Online

  • Liberation Through Non-Clinging

    A dharma talk where Buddhist teacher Joseph Goldstein discusses the nature of impermanence and letting go of the grasping mind. Related articles The Buddha as counter-evolutionary (thenonbuddhist.com) The Buddha’s Struggle With Anxiety? (thebuddhasmind.wordpress.com) Beginning Buddhism (busybuddha.wordpress.com) Four Noble Truths (maribelquinones.wordpress.com)… Continue reading

    Liberation Through Non-Clinging

  • Conversations with a Devotee – Kafka

    Conversations with a Devotee by Franz Kafka There was a time when I went every day into a church, since a girl I was in love with knelt there in prayer for half an hour in the evening and I… Continue reading

    Conversations with a Devotee – Kafka

  • Esoteric Symbols: The Tarot in Yeats, Eliot, and Kafka

    Esoteric Symbols: The Tarot in Yeats, Eliot, and Kafka June Leavitt University Press of America, Jan 1, 2007 157 pages In this pioneering scholarly work on occult symbols in literature, the reader is offered a vivid look into how W.B. Yeats,… Continue reading

  • Caravaggio’s profane eye for the sacred – Eureka Street

    Caravaggio was the Jim Morrison of his time — Rimbaud with a paintbrush. There was little that was pious or holy about the man with a gift for holy and sacred art. Caravaggio’s world was the world of drunken singing,… Continue reading

    Caravaggio’s profane eye for the sacred – Eureka Street